Full Freeview on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.424,-0.076 or 51°25'26"N 0°4'32"W |  | SE19 1UE |
The symbol shows the location of the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter which serves 4,490,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) mast?
Crystal Palace transmitter - Crystal Palace transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Crystal Palace transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Crystal Palace transmitter?
BBC London 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London W1A 1AA, 11km north-northwest (334°)
to BBC London region - 55 masts.
ITV London News 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London WC1X 8XZ, 11km north-northwest (345°)
to ITV London region - 55 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Charlton Athletic | Transposer | Redeveloped north stand Charlton Athletic Football Club | 130 homes |
| Deptford | Transposer | south-east London | 100 homes |
| Greenford | Transposer | 12 km N Heathrow Airport | 203 homes |
| Hendon | Transposer | Graham Park estate | 50 homes |
| White City | Transposer | 9 km W central London | 80 homes |
How will the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 21 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | ||||
| C1 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C22 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C23 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C25 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C26 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C28 | -ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C29 | LW | ||||||||
| C30 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | -BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C33 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | com7 | |||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 4 Apr 12 and 18 Apr 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 1000kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 200kW | |
| com7 | (-13.7dB) 43.1kW | |
| com8 | (-14dB) 39.8kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LW | (-17dB) 20kW |
Local transmitter maps
Crystal Palace Freeview Crystal Palace DAB Crystal Palace TV region BBC London LondonWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Crystal Palace transmitter area
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Saturday, 2 June 2012
David: You are not getting two different signals from one transmitter. You cannot be getting BBC South from Crystal Palace because it broadcasts BBC London!
If the BBC South signal is coming from Hannington (the signal strength screen will say it is tuned to C45), then run the automatic tuning scan and unplug the aerial when it gets to 30%. This will have the aerial plugged in for Crystal Palace and unplugged for Hannington and a few other transmitters that "may perhaps" be available to you.
Looking around the streets on Streetview there are quite a few aerials on Hannington, so you may be able to get it if you want BBC South and Meridian.
Failing that you may be able to pick up from Hemdean, which is a relay of Hannington, although it doesn't carry the Commercial channels. A way round this may be to combine the Crystal Palace aerial with a Hemdean one or if you can receive from Hannington directly, you could always retain your CP aerial and combine with a Hannington one to give you BBC South, ITV Meridian, BBC London, and ITV London.
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David: From what I can see on the map, you're a little low lying of Burghfield Hill. The trees beyond there look to be in the line between the transmitter and you and they appear as if they may be on the brow of the hill over which the signal comes. If so, then they are probably a detriment to your reception.
Those living in the valley in which the Thames runs also look to be affected with regards poor to non-existant reception from Hannington. This probably explains why Hemdean transmitter was built.
You are of course near to the Kennet, so that explains why your area might not be so good.
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David: One other thing to point out is that Hannington's Commercial multiplexes (known as "COMs") are not as strong as the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) ones. Hemdean relays Hannington's PSBs, but does not transmit the COMs.
So you may find that you can receive Hannington's PSBs but not its COMs. If you are unable to receive Hannington's COMs, then its PSBs are also available from Hemdean (as it is a relay).
If you combined the Crystal Palace aerial (assuming that you can receive CP's COMs), then you will be able to watch Hannington's PSBs and the COMs.
For a list of multiplexes, see this page under the heading "After switchover configuration" (you may need to refresh to see the graphic):
Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
BBCA, D3&4 and BBCB are the PSBs and SDN, ArqA and ArqB are the COMs. BBCB is the HD multiplex.
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R
Robert3:45 PM
Does anyone else consider that Crystal Place now has an insidious intermittent transmitter problem for people very local to the transmitter? Their Freeview reception can go totally to pot when the transmitter mast gets wet. And this is a new phenomenon post 4th April BBC and 18th April the rest. How much does anyone, world wide know about the behaviour of the multiplexers run at higher power. What changes were made to the configuration? How well is the science understood? How much field testing was done? I have had the very sensible suggestion of using attenuation which I have experimented with. But I also have noted a steady drop off signal powered as measured by my hard disc recorder, over the weeks since 4th April 2012. A few days latter after purchasing new aerials and attenuators, I thought the signal power measurement did not work, because it was always 10, even with 18dB of attenuation. It was only when I tried an unterminated VCR RF lead that I got a reading of 6. A few weeks later when I froze my configuration and stopped trying to find a new sweet spot for my new indoor aerial, as I had come to the inescapable conclusion the fault was outside of my equipment, I ran for a while with 12 dB but have reduced to 6 and then 0 in response to the measured power levels and continuing problems. Seven people or 100% of the people I talked too who use broadcast Freeview; in my block have noticed a decline in reception quality. 5 have the same insidious fault where TV can become unwatchable since DSO. Lots of indoor aerials and two independent communal aerial systems now longer are reliable for Freeview. After over 50 years of successful broadcast from Crystal Palace, TV is no longer a wireless device in this area. How can you watch a film error free for 2 hrs and the reception become totally unwatchable just at the climax of the film? Our communal aerials would be condemned in an eye blink because of their age according to DigitalUK. UK TV is not designed to be received by anything but an outdoor aerial here lots of people use a bit of wire, coat hanger or nothing, It gobsmaked the engineer who was doing the pre tune for channel 5 that all these TVs worked and on my post DSO survey I found a lady who uses Freeview and still has no aerial. The advantage of digital transmission is that with error correction, noise and interference can be filtered, Schmitt trigger circuits can clean up a digitally modulated analogue signal before it is converted back into in digital data all this help to make the medium far more tolerant and resilient but there are limits. Whatever is going wrong is far s beyond the scope of the signal processing and error correction circuits to cope with. Professional investigation is required. Any comments?
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Monday, 4 June 2012
R
Robert1:05 PM
What power did Multiplex BBCA on C23 start with on 4th April. 20 or 200 MW?
Does anyone, outside Arqiva know the detailed configuration changes to the broadcase antenna and if not being able to find BBCA on C23 was a resonable problem to have on an indoor aerial or not.
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N
NICK ADSL UK 2:28 PM
Robert since switch-over my set up has been very bad despite all the equipment being of the highest spec one day on one day off and am told that's the way it's going to be in future by the BBC for some on Crystal Place
As for the reason the guy i was speaking to wasn't saying and i myself along with my tv field engineer have drawn a blank
I have freesat so this free view is no big deal but none the less would have liked it to work like is has done without fault from day one come switch over it's gone to pot
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Tuesday, 5 June 2012
R
Robert12:58 PM
NICK ADSL UK : Thanks for your posting. I might explain a bit of a reluctance to engage I have felt from certain quarters. There is far far more to a problem of this type than the just technical issues. I was clueless to the scale of DSO and the technical risks taken. Im very glad Im not involved with any of the discussions and events that led up to DSO; however as an ex- European Technical Support engineer would love a bash at being part of the solution.
For a decade Freeview sometime took 30 minutes to set up and find a sweet spot for the indoor aerial, then it that was it, stable as a rock until I bought the next bit of AV kit and wanted to move stuff around.
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Friday, 8 June 2012
V
Val Tilley2:09 PM
For over 2 weeks, I have been unable to watch TV most of the time because of the 'pixeling'(?). Was OK once the final changeover took place, although Channel 12 does not even show on list. However, I have had to resort to watching on my computer and even that keeps giving up the ghost. Have re-tuned at least 4 times without success. Am not technically minded and would appreciate help in simple form!
Thanks
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Saturday, 9 June 2012
M
Mark Fletcher12:44 AM
Halifax
Val Tilley.As you did not leave a full postcode or a nearby location as such,we cannot be of useful help to you !
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Sunday, 10 June 2012
N
NICK ADSL UK 6:48 PM
Robert
as you may not know in that i am a Microsoft MVP who helps the world for free in the main forums in security
I post hundreds of security updates a year and the vast majority of the people in the world receive these without a problem but for some reason there are thousands more who run into a problem and i guess that free view is just the same all we can do at the end of the day is to help out the public the best we can and hopefully educate the public a little better so that they can understand on what's going on behind the scenes so that they realize that there not alone and free help is forthcoming
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